In 2015 about 85 noticeable anti-Christians incidents occurred in India says an NGO

In 2015, there had been about 85 major recorded incidents of anti-Christians violence across 20 states of India, says an NGO the Catholic Secular Forum. (CSF)

According to details, a minority and human rights NGO has compiled facts and figures regarding the incidents of persecution of Christians in India during the last year.

The NGO claims that the intolerance against the Christians has been an exceptionally beefed up in the country. In keeping with this report, “on an average India saw one such incident of hate crime against Christians a day last year.”

Madhya Pradesh proved to be the worst Indian state in terms of persecution of Christians. Telengana and Uttar Pradesh fall second and third in the list of worst states for Christians. Moreover, Maharashtra which is the hub of the “Hindutva” along with Indian capitol Delhi are also listed among the top 10 Indian states where such incidents had occurred.

In New Delhi, about five Catholic churches had been vandalized and Christian priests had been attacked along with members of Christian community. CSF’s report further claims that about seven pastors were killed and 8,000 Christians; which included 5,000 Christian women and children had been targeted in 2015.

Joseph Dias- CSF general secretary says, “There is at least a 20% increase in the incidents in terms of the number of people victimized as against 2014. The real numbers are much higher as many don’t want to report such incidents as the police force is communal. Then we have incidents from areas where RSS is very dominant and victims are threatened to not report the attacks. In some cases the media is also biased. Being less in number, Christians can’t fight back.”

“With the BJP government in the Centre, there is huge increase in RSS shakhas. Even though there is no BJP government in Kerala, the state has the highest number of shakhas. West Bengal, which has long been under communist rule and is now governed by liberal forces, BJP has a strong hold over five districts where re conversions are picking up. There is saffronization of secular institution and in every sphere secular activities have been saffronized be it in the northeast, Tamil Nadu, Kerala or Goa.”

“Earlier Gujarat was the Hindutva capital but now it is Maharashtra. The biggest ever rally of RSS was held in Pune where 1.50 lac people participated. Rationalist like Narendra Dabholkar and others are being threatened. And the anti-conversion bill has been admitted in the Maharashtra Assembly. There is one Narendra Maharaj who claimed to have re- converted 2,000 Christians to Hinduism in 2015 and his headquarter is also in Maharashtra. Saffron terror attacks somehow have their roots in Maharashtra,” says Dias.